A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE FESSE. 43
The term cheque,
in heraldry, is said of the field or any other charge or figure
lillcd with square pieces alternately of different tinctures \\ hich ;
pieces Monsieur
Baron will have to represent, in armories, battalions and squadrons of soldiers, and
so a fit bearing for chief commanders of armies, as those of the ancient family of
Stewart have been.
Other heralds tell us, the term is cheque from the French word echiquier, a chessboard
because the accountants in the office of the ; King's Exchequer did, of old,
use such boards in calculating their accounts : And
arms thus chequered, are call-
ed by heralds arma scacuta or scaciata, and the Court of Exchequer with us is
called, Scacariujn Regis*
The English writers of the Ancient and Present State of England tell us, That
their Court of is Exchequer so called from a chess-board used by accountants, or
from a chequer-wrought carpet which covered the table of the Court ; as the Court
of Green-cloth in. the King's Palace is called from the green carpet. But they that
would have more of this derivation may see Skene De Verborum Significations.
How agreeable, then, are the armorial ensigns of the Stewarts to their employments
and offices ; who, long before they ascended the throne, were commanders
in chief of armies under our ancient Kings, and Lords High Stewards of Scotland,
and were always in use to carry for their paternal ensign, or, a fesse cheque, azure
and argent ; by the French, d'or, a la face echiquete, d'azure & d* argent ; and by
the Latins, scutum aureum exaratum balteo militari transverso, cyani 1st argenti, duc-
tu triplici scacato : The Latins ordinarily tell of how many tracts cheque consists,
but more of this afterwards in the title of CHEQUE.
I have seen the seal of Walter, hereditary Lord High Steward of Scotland in the
reign of Alexander II. appended to a charter of his, for the south part of the forest
lying upon the water of Ayr, which his father Allan had granted, Allano Parvo, as
the charter has it ; wherein he gives these lands a-new to the Religious of Melrose.
The seal is appended large, and of an equestrian form, having the picture of a maa
on horseback in a coat of mail, brandishing, a sword with his right hand, and on
his left arm a shield charged with a fesse cheque of three tracts, and above his hel-
met, on his head, was also a wreath chequed, and round the seal were these words,
Sigill. Walteri filii Allani. This seal has no reverse : He died 124.1. The seal of
his son Alexander, (which I have also seen), was after the form of his father's ; but
on the reverse was a triangular shield, charged with a fesse cheque hausse, that is
higher up towards the top of the shield ; for which the English say transposed.
Such a fesse is carried sometimes on the account of singular virtues ; of which
afterwards.
I shall only here mention the seal of his son James,, seventh Lord High Steward
of Scotland, appended to a. charter of his, granting some lands to the Abbacy of
Melrose, " Pro. salute animus nostrae & omnium ante cessorum & successorum meo-
" rum, & specialiter pro salute Alexandri patris mei charissimi." On which seal,
a man is represented on horseback, in his coat of mail, brandishing a sword, and
on his left arm a shield, charged with a fesse cheque ; which fesse cheque was also
on the caparisons of his horse, both behind and before : and on the reverse of the
seal was a large triangular shield, with a fesse cheque hausse.
Other instances of the bearing of the fesse cheque, by the name of Stewart and
others, will be added at the end of this chapter. But to proceed to the other forms
of fesses.
The ancient arms of Austria were five birds called larks, situate 2 2 and I or,
relative to the name of a Roman governor of that province named L'Alowette,
which signifies a lark. But, afterwards, Leopold Jasper Duke of Austria, fighting
against the Saracens in a white s-urcoat and scarf, and returning from the battle ;ill
bloody, when the scarf was loosed, his surcoat appeared as a coat of arms thus :
gules, charged with a fesse argent ; which became, after that, the armorial ensign
of Austria. Yet others tell us, that these arms represent the country of Austria,
being of a red soil, thwarted with the silver river of the Danube like a tesse argent ;
as the four white fesses in the arms of Hungary do represent the four principal
rivers which water that country.
The surname of CHARTERIS with us gives for arms argent, a fesse azure ; the two
principal families of this surname who contended for chiefship, were Charteris of